We need to talk about...rats...!

[AntiqueVases]

Hello

I've now watched the entire current series of Gardeners World and 2 series of Beechgrove Garden. Only once have rats been mentioned and even then (on BG) only fleetingly!

All this chat about "don't be too tidy in the garden, leave piles of leaves" apparently it's "good for small mammals" - does that include RATS?

Also...why does everyone feed the birds?! I thought that was a huge rat-risk?!

I'm still traumatised from finding a huge dead rat on my lawn a few weeks after moving into my current house, last year, the first time I've ever had anything more than a communal garden.

Thank you for any thoughts!

I don't and won't feed the birds.
We have cats

I used to rent out an upside down house (living floor above bedrooms). There was a large deck
outside the main living floor. My tenants complained of rats. Exterminator sent out who told me they were feeding the pigeons (!!) by scattering seed all over the deck. I told the tenants if they did that no wonder they had rats. (Same tenants complained the drains were blocked - yes by a huge ball of fat as they would dump hot cooking oil down the sink, plus the wipes they used to flush down the macerater toilet, clogging it). Some people have no sense.

Rats are everywhere so not much you can do. However, feeding the birds does encourage them massively. Piles of leaves not so much but they do like decking, sheds, drains or anywhere they can burrow under and be snug. They are neophobic so don’t like change and are suspicious of new things.